Press Release (U.K.)

Remote Backup Software: Beware of Shortcomings

London – April 25, 2006 – The growing challenges of backing up information produced by employees working outside a company’s main headquarters have finally spurred backup vendors to recognize the reality that deploying tape-based backup at remote sites is not a viable or reliable data protection solution. Recently vendors who have traditionally been tape-focused – including the world’s market share leader in tape backup software – have jumped on the bandwagon for the emerging market for remote backup software. The growing interest in remote backup is understandable considering that an estimated 60 to 70 percent of mission-critical data is stored at off-site locations, and according to the U.S. Census Bureau there are more than one million remote office/branch office (ROBO) sites nationwide.

“It’s gratifying to see the remote backup software market that Asigra™ pioneered rapidly evolve and expand with the entry of tape-focused vendors such as Iron Mountain and Symantec, who, along with Asigra, are encouraging customers to improve/update their ROBO data protection strategy and technology,” said Eran Farajun, executive vice president of Asigra. “As more remote backup software choices become available, users will inevitably discover that some are less mature than others, and lack important functionality to protect ROBO data properly.”

Many of the new products fall short of offering the security, simplicity and scalability required by organizations with geographically dispersed ROBOs, say experts at Asigra, the technology specialists in agentless distributed backup and recovery software for network computing. With 20 years of experience in remote backup, Asigra offers the following tips for businesses that may be evaluating remote office backup software:

• Employ Agentless Architecture
  An agentless backup model dramatically reduces capital costs and ongoing administrative expenses associated with conventional backup technologies. An agentless architecture requires just one software application to be installed on a Windows, Linux, or Mac OS X machine at each remote location, with customers paying only for the aggregate amount of compressed data across the enterprise network. All backup and restore processes should be integrated into a single remote office product to safeguard data residing on all servers, desktops and databases throughout the organization. Additionally, agents pose a security risk by allowing hackers to take control of the machine via the backup agent.


• Choose a Solution with Extensive Interoperability and Support for Diverse ROBO Data Types
  A solution should ensure interoperability with third-party vendors’ hardware and software platforms, earned through validation after rigorous testing. In addition, remote backup software should provide extensive OS and database support. Finding a solution that has been developed to work with a wide-ranging array of software and hardware products already in use or that may be adopted by a company in the future leverages infrastructure investment while maximizing data protection.


• Choose a Complete Solution
  While there are specific products that are optimized for single functions such as email backup and archiving or database backup, deploying multiple backup applications adds to the cost and complexity of protecting ROBO data. To maximize their investment in ROBO backup software, customers should look for a single solution that is capable of backing up all of their remote email systems, databases, files and OS environments instead of having to rely on multiple packages.


• Ensure Regulatory Compliance
  With increasing legislation by state, federal and international agencies demanding the safeguarding of customer and financial data, ROBO backup software needs to deliver superior data protection, including automated scheduled backup, encryption of data both ’in-flight‘ and ’at-rest‘ and availability for restoration 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in the event of an emergency or major disaster. Be sure that remote office solutions are Backup Lifecycle Management-enabled and provide verifiable data destruction by producing a digital certificate.


• Count on Experience
  With vendors jumping on the remote office bandwagon, they are often piggybacking functionality onto previously developed backup software that was designed to protect data at a single, centralized location. These vendors’ remote office offerings may be developed as an add-on to legacy software or may be implemented after the acquisition of outside technology, both of which may increase complexity or prove problematic.

About Asigra
Asigra is the award-winning leader in remote office/branch office online backup/recovery with more than three petabytes of data under protection. Since 1986, the company’s agentless Televaulting solution has centralized data management and eliminated the pricing and performance problems created by agent-based tape backup software in multi-site enterprises. Televaulting addresses state, Federal and international regulatory compliance demands by backing up remote/branch office data to the data center. Data is encrypted both “in-flight” over the WAN and “at rest.” Televaulting is offered by leading resellers and service providers worldwide to deliver highly secure data protection. Privately held Asigra is headquartered in Toronto, Canada with partner offices located globally. For more information, visitwww.asigra.com.